Our family is blessed to have 2 beautiful boys, Jeffrey and Jack. Jeffrey, our oldest son, was born with PFFD and FH,(aka: leg-length discrepancy) This blog is our way of sharing the marvelous adventure our family is embarking on, one millimeter at a time.

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Reflections of the last day being a 3 year old

As I cuddled with my boy tonight on his last night of being a 3 year old, I couldn't help but tear up.
We talked about our day and....okay, wipe the tear drip now, crap! Okay, composed!... We talked about our day today and our favorite part of it. His was reading the "H is for Homerun" book just before bed. Mine was when we were waiting in the Dr's office for about 2 hours just being silly and giggling. That hasn't been happening in a while and it felt so good to be enjoying that goofiness with him again! Then he changed his favorite part of the day to be the same as mine :)
We talked about how we met a 7 week old baby, Brayden, and his parents. They were in the room next to ours and Dr. Standard asked if we'd mind talking with them. I was so excited to jump at the chance to tell someone else that their child will be awesome! He'll play and be a better, stronger kid because of his little leg :) Jeffrey was "rolling all over the floor" proof that not even 9 screws in his leg could slow a boy down. Jeff adored that baby. He kept touching his tootsie toes and wanted to pick out his toe fuzzies. That was where mom and I drew the line. hehe
I gave her all of my info: e-mail, facebook name, etc. I hope she is able to take away some sort of calmness knowing that as shocking and upsetting as it is to hear that your child's leg might be amputated elsewhere, her son is now in great hands at the Rubin Institute. It takes quite a bit of thinking, reasoning and a lot of support to come to the optimistic realization that "It's just a bone." It could be a whole lot worse. When I told her about this blog, she said she has one too. I'm anxious to read it!
What else happened today...? Hmmmm...oh!!! We did our last turn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We've made roughly 6.5 cm of bone in his right femur. It wasn't the most length we had hoped to get, but it's a whole heck of a lot more than what we started with! The reason we decided to lock down is I think Jeffrey's body was trying to tell us, he's done. At PT this morning in Baltimore, our therapist said that his hip extension was at -45. That's not good! He can't straighten his leg at his hip. We can and that would be considered neutral. If you stood up straight and lifted your right leg 45 degrees forward that is basically where Jeff's leg is stuck and that tendon in his hip is tight. It hurts to straighten. To compensate he arches his back and walks hunched over. We have to do more belly time. Not only is his hip an issue but his distracter bar was starting to rise up. (I'll show it in the picture so you have a clue what I'm talking about.)

The therapist said that sometimes if there is too much force being applied by lengthening, the bar could bow or pop out causing us to lose that tension where he is stretching. She said sometimes it's okay and sometimes it could be a huge problem. I'm going to err on the side of caution on this one and say, "Okay, we're done!"

Passed the time reading this book then using it as a ramp for monster trucks :p

All in all, it was an eventful day. Now, the boys are asleep, it's 8:15 and mom is going to....clean! haha Well, finish blogging of course and then clean. We are excited to have guests coming from Syracuse University. Cousin Abbey and her friend Jeff are coming to stay over after "A Night for Jeffrey". We can't wait to see them!
I guess I should also alter his dressy swooshy pants or his dressy sweatpants for tomorrow night. haha Poor kid!
Tomorrow is my big boy's big 4!!!!!!